1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Trying to fix the NIL era: December 18, 11:25am

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

With the current state of college sports, how does one fix it with the NIL era in full swing. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

And Bach and I are working. We're breaking down psychology for people. That would be a late-night podcast, Bob. Trying to figure out the science behind who you date and me. I'm sure there's some wonderful thing. But, bro, that's a thing. We're going to think in the days of transfer of formal conversations, and NIL, I think we need to get to some simplicity

that NIL, revenue share, and transfer portal are here to stay in some fashion, in some fashion. And people want to put college athletics into professional vacuals. But I think that's that is not necessarily true or authentic because they're still students.

It is with and it is under the guise of education. It's under the umbrella of education. And that if you commit to attending a university and accepting the benefits and perks of that

university it should be you should not be allowed to enter into any of these situations you can call them agreements because they are right um they try to not call them contracts uh they use the word scholarship but it is a contract bach is that is that is that not fair or or truth yeah especially yeah traditionally right it is it is a legally binding commitment between two entities. Mind you, it is not fair and equitable, because the college institution is a part of a member lot of universities and conferences

who have attorneys and other attorneys and special attorneys and specific attorneys to draw up these agreements to hand over to teenagers. And often two parents, because you say, I can't hand it to the teenager, so I got to hand it to the parent. But how many parents have the same legal support and legal advice as the Big Ten conference, the southeastern conference, the NCAA, or any of their member institution? so it's not equal or fair it hasn't been forever not equal because all of the people we mentioned were making money off of these young people and you can say well the agreement is that you come help us make money and we have rights to everything we'll give you a degree we'll educate you

Right? We're going to better your life. We're going to allow you into the fraternity that is a degreed pedigree from our university and all of the values and benefits of being a graduate of said university. We will allow you a chance to better your wares and play on national TV or regional TV, because it used to be regional TV. It wasn't national TV. But the value of the student athletes is what brought TV to the table. That's what brought TV revenue to the table.

That's what brings TV revenue all the way in is these soon athletes. I hate to tell you, nobody's lining up to watch the coach. You're not buying tickets to watch a coach coach. You're watching, you're buying tickets to watch the players play. Is that fair? That's fair, though I do think there's some argument to be said about the brand over the years for college sports as well. What is the Nebraska brand? Well, just in that they're, you know,

the players' faces change. The stadium stays full year after year. But it's an accumulation of all those players' faces. That's the brand. That's the brand. The end has value because of the faces, the accumulation of faces that played under that end. That's one way to look at it,

but you could have put, you could, I mean, you could put different faces in there and it'd still fill out. Well, that's the point. The brand is the accumulation of all of these faces. Without the faces and without the names and those numbers don't have any value unless you put the faces and names with them. Jersey number 16. Big whoop, right, until you name names. It's just the jersey number.

The 20 jersey has value because of the face that made it. It does. I'm going to argue on behalf of the colleges and the brands and the logos and all that, that, you know, there is something to be built in like a fan base. I mean, that's the college. You go to a lot of people like the college that they went to, right? Is just, you know. Would they like the college because without football?

Would they like, would they like the college without college athletic? it again again depends i mean i would i went to the university why did every college have athletic what's the benefit for most part if you have football you can make some money no all athletics yeah all every year all the universities that have athletic department why because it allows you a constant

flow of new faces names talent etc and events events to make money off of people to carry your brand outside of your circle into new spaces for new money well yeah i mean everything's based around money it's fortissory it's rotissory that for four years the their problem was remember the problem was you had four years you got that person for four years until they realized that legally that wasn't probably ideal or or right and so now that it's year to year year to year. And some people like and some don't. Why? Because we don't become emotionally invested in the face, because we don't have time to get emotionally invested in the face.

There's the number 15 that this market became emotionally invested in the person. Then there are other 15s. Some pretty prominent 15s, maybe some of the goats are 15. but emotionally invested. And then the hurt that happens when there's separation between this 15 and whoever's next. Financial, the financial side versus the emotional side. And what you have to fix is balance. I think balance is the thing you need to fix.

One, I'm glad they finally admitted that the players should be receiving some benefits. And the pendulum has to swing all the way to the other side because there was none for forever. And now you have to get it right. Well, so what do you do? You let it become a free-for-all. Well, that's not right either. That's not right either. But remember, it's the people with all the legal support and resources who are making it legal.

they're the ones like oh we have to pay players now okay what are we what are we going to do let's make it right but let's make it right so are we under agreement that these are agreements yeah for basically a year or contract yeah but does it say in the contracts that it's a year no no so shouldn't a simple a simple thing right would be be it's year to year. These agreements are year to year, right? So that when we go into the recruiting pool and we say we're going, we're going after this four star, how long do we get the four star a year and we'll renegotiate

afterward? Is that what we're doing? That's what's currently going on. Yeah. Okay. If they come in in June or July. Do we have them until July, the following July? Or do we have them just through football season until they make another decision?

Just until they want to make another decision. Okay, so the agreement's not for a year. The agreement's actually for six months. For a football season, yeah. Right, basketball season, same rules. Yeah, yeah, whatever your... Baseball, whatever thing you're... Right, so let's break it down.

These are not four-year agreements or five-year agreements. These are not until graduation. This is not from freshman to graduate, right? because graduate could be eight years. We receive that. So we need to specify what we're doing. So is it a commitment just for the football season? The active season?

Is the agreement from July to July, or is it from August to February? But? Well, I don't know what the official cutoff. updates. Obviously, that's why they got the transfer portal and kind of trying to start put guard wheels around it. But yeah, I mean, it's, it's just for the season. Right. So you as a fan, are you going to get emotionally invested in having somebody for five months? We have. Because we've been looking at it wrong. That's the real problems. We've been

looking at this all wrong. Well, I mean, it just comes from the historic level of usually you'd get a kid and stick around campus and rare exceptions they would leave. Well, that ain't in anymore. That isn't, right? Same thing for coach, year to year or season to season? It could be season to season. It could be halfway through the season. Season to season, right? It could be in the middle of season. Right. Right. So if the university is not beholden to the coach for the duration of the agreement, then there's no way for the coach and the university to be beholden to the player for the duration of the agreement. I don't think, I would say maybe 95% of contracts don't finish, right? I mean, you're either re-negotiating so for a future contract or the guy's been fired by them. In the real business world, Boc, contracts are fulfilled.

Oh, yeah. In the real world, what are we talking about? But you can't do that in college football. You absolutely can do that in college. You go to the end, well, then how are you going to recruit? Nobody is entitled to be a part of college football unless they, are willing to work within the rules of what is set by the NCAA, the member conferences,

and the member institution. But nobody wants to do, everybody wants the freedom to just steal money and be pirates and gypsies and keep it moving. That's how we got here. It has to be broken down to think about, here's the thing. If you're,

the transfer portal opens, how long are we asking people to commit to Nebraska about a season one season right and you as a local business are you committing to this player for a season

you're going to do NIL what's the NIL for Bach well it's supposed to be named image and likeness for how long for season

if you're signing a longer term deal, you're not a very good business. Right. Or at least you're not making business sense. Right? Because we don't know if your coach is going to be here. Because your coach has the freedom to move. Right? Because he's not going to honor an agreement either. Doesn't have to, no. Right.

So none of the adults in the room are going to honor an agreement that they have had legal possession of and curate. They crafted these agreements themselves. Well, they usually craft them in a way that they can get out without complete punishment on. Oh, so they're building

it for the dismount. They're setting up the marriage contract for the for the annulment. You always need the annulment. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Bach. Genius, Bob. So how do we fix that? Well, again, it's one of those things is the toothpaste out of the tube. Because to really fix college football, you got to go back and start over. I mean, build from the beginning and create your own new guidelines and rules. If you really, like, if you want to. contracts to go through? Yes. Oh, man. Yes. That's why I said. I think the toothpaste is hell of tube on that.

The church says amen. The church says amen, Bob. The box is, the church says amen. That the fans will say, we are not, if we're just going to give you money, no matter what the product is, no matter what the result, no matter who the people are, no matter what culture you have going on, because quite frankly, some institutions right now, aren't exactly living up the university standard. They're doing some things. There's some shenanigans going on.

And we aren't having it. But if you're going to keep giving money to it, guess what? They're going to keep doing it. And if you don't set the line and say, you know what? As a local business, if you're coming to ask me to write a million-dollar check to help these programs, are you going to ask me every five months? you come to see me every five months because it's a different lineup.

It's a different lineup in February than it is in August. Oh, you'll receive a phone caller 11. Hey, get a buck. Get them back. Get them back. And this same, here's the other thing. The same thing applies for the transfer portal.

Agreements. Legally binding agreements that say what it is, and it's for the greater good, you know who has to be honored in these agreements? You ready for this? You know who ultimately has to be considered in these agreements?

The fans. Because these the university entity, the NCAA, the conferences, the member institutions, the coaches, and the players all make decisions for them. And at no point,

point at no point in this process is the fan considered unless it's to get more money and if the fans are just investors then we're going to we're going to have to stop talking about them like fans we're going to start talking about them as investors and it'll change the way you think about college athletic we'll close out we'll be back